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'Building the Beast': What It's Like to Be an Early Startup Employee

As part of our series The First 100, Mashable has been introducing readers to employees 1 through 100 at successful startups such as FourSquare, BuzzFeed and BarkBox. Along the way, we've heard from early hires about how they withstood turbulence and embraced the risk and uncertainty that comes along with the nature of building a business from scratch.

"Believe it or not, the biggest difference from my first day to today is that everyone is even more passionate and driven," says Pardot's 38th hire Ryan Johnston. Like Johnston, employees who join early on in the game actually help to shape the future of the startup — hence, an invigorated passion for their little "company-that-could" grows each day.

Mixing work and play... I found out about Thrillist through my brother, who used to DJ their parties. I loved everything the brand stood for — helping people live fun lives. As a 23-year-old living in New York, I took fun very seriously. Before, I was working at a PR firm that specialized in talent and celebrities. I was looking to go in-house and work for a brand I could fully get behind and be passionate about. Thrillist was still relatively unknown at the time, but I always thought about how cool it would be to help build a business and to have been there from the beginning when the company finally made it big. Turns out, I was right.

Learning how to own the job... I started here as a coordinator who literally knew nothing about anything, but I could fake it pretty well. Over time, I proved to everyone (including myself) that I wasn't pretending to know what to do anymore; instead, I actually knew what to do, and I could do it pretty damn well. Eventually, I was promoted to manager and then director. I now run the communications department — overseeing all public relations and internal communication efforts throughout the company.

DiCaprio-type change... It's like comparing Leo on "Growing Pains" to Leo in "The Aviator." I remember on my first day, I got to the office early and no one was there yet. Our co-founder, Ben, was the first to arrive and let me know that they didn't have a desk, phone or computer for me yet, but that they would soon. I think he must've read the look of nervousness on my face because he said, "I swear we're a real company." I was reassured, my moment of doubt was gone and the rest is history.

Building the beast… We don't have people flying under the radar and skating by. Everyone pulls their weight and works really hard. Because of that, there's a really powerful energy of collectively working toward the same goal, which is to build this thing into as big of a beast as it can be. At the same time, we have fun while we do it. The office itself is set up to promote socializing (with open desks, couches, cafeteria-style seating, etc.). We've managed to maintain that "startup vibe" as we've grown, which I think is very special.

Why take the risk?... At a startup, you often trade some current day salary for the prospect of a greater return on equity down the road. If all goes well, you're rewarded by both the work and the equity. The things that matter most in any job are the people who you'll be working with, the company's commitment to whatever your role or department is, the problems that you'll be asked to solve and opportunities to learn new skills. 140 Proof hit all of those.

A jack of all trades… I'm SVP of marketing, but I have also taken on the roles of New York office manager and IT guy –- I'm the guy ordering Fresh Direct, buying office supplies, fixing the network in our New York office, etc. As head of marketing, though, my job is to help arm our sales people with the simple and compelling story of what we do. The freedom of a startup is that I have some very broad goals and the freedom to achieve them creatively. That keeps the job fresh every day.

On company culture... We have the music, snacks and the games in the office that you expect from a startup these days — though we've dispensed the Foosball table in favor of a professional basketball hoop right in the middle of the office. We're also right across the street from a brew-pub, which doesn't hurt.

The road to Popsugar... I was coming from my own namesake site, MollyGood, which I had launched. It was a hard decision to leave behind something that I was building and loved, but the daily grind of working from my apartment in San Francisco on an East Coast schedule was getting to me. The moment I met Popsugar's founders, Lisa and Brian Sugar, I was hooked and invigorated to join the team and get involved in this fun, lively startup atmosphere.

Role expansion... In some ways, my role has changed tremendously over the years. In others, it's pretty much the same because I'm still doing what I love — working with amazing people, creating content that audiences loves and growing the world of Popsugar. I started out as the first editor (other than Lisa) of Popsugar. Now, as VP of content, I help lead the editorial department. I still manage a team on a day-to-day basis, but I also divide my time between editorial, video and our "Must Have" subscription box business. I am lucky enough to work with many different departments at Popsugar. Until recently, I prided myself on knowing everyone's name. I'm working on getting that skill back!

In this video above, Brad Dickason shares what being employee #34 means to him.

A juggling act... When I first started at Shapeways, I was employee number 34, which sounds like a big number, but you have to consider that we have two factories. One of them was running out of our office here and doing shipping and distribution, while the other was already going to the Netherlands. We also didn't have a sophisticated design department, a group of product managers or people managing our materials portfolio — you kind of just have to pick up everything that's flying around. I was juggling everything at once. Luckily over time, I was able to hire a team around me as we've grown.

Embracing community... When I first started, I would interact with the community by going to meetups we had in NYC and talking to people online in the forums. We have the ability when we're launching a new release to roll it out to a small group of users, and we collect very detailed feedback from them. Most of the things that happen at Shapeways happen because someone on the factory floor had an idea, or one of our users emailed us an idea. The community is the lifeblood of what we do.

Nothing is set in stone... We spend a lot of time thinking about how can we empower people inside and outside the company so that their ideas come to life. We don't want to become one of those companies where you set a plan in stone for the next two years and you only execute that roadmap. That's the antithesis of what Shapeways represents. We're about helping designers experiment.

Considering the benefits and trade-offs... Joining Milk + Honey was a twofold decision for me: I wanted to be somewhere that enabled genuine self-starter spirit, and that gave me the opportunity to develop the culture of a small, growing business by applying what I'd learned at larger companies. Thanks to founder/owner Alissa Bayer's vision and entrepreneurial drive, I was able to find both these things in their earliest forms. I couldn't say "no." There are obvious trade-offs of switching from a bigger, more established corporate environment to a smaller startup, and for me, I was nervous about my benefits package. Would I be offered health insurance? Would this be something I had to spend extra money on? Sure, it's just one of the many details that play a factor into taking a job anywhere, but it was important to me — and to Alissa — to provide healthcare benefits to all of her employees. At the time that I joined in 2007, it was a rarity in the spa industry to have that at your disposal, and I was glad to have that weight off my shoulders.

Growing with the company... I started as a concierge, which was a step back in the kind of responsibility I was used to. But I had my sights set on growing with the company, which meant getting my foot in the door and seeing where commitment, passion and a good revenue track record could take me. Even now, the front desk is truly the heartbeat of Milk + Honey. Only three months in, I was offered the general manager position at a new spa location — a testament to the fact that the landscape of a startup is always changing, and even in a short amount of time, you can make leaps and bounds. Now, I'm the general manager for the Milk + Honey flagship in downtown Austin. I focus on leading my team of assistant managers, generating revenue, growing the business and keeping my team happy.

Making customers and employees feel at home... One word describes the culture at Milk + Honey: Family. We've been voted one of “Austin's Best Places to Work” by Austin Business Journal three years in a row. When I walk in the door at any location, I instantly feel at home. Clients can feel something when they walk in the front door, and employees can feel it when they walk in the back door — it just feels good in here. We have a lengthy interview process and we make sure that whomever we extend an offer to possesses genuine kindness, passion and love. Combine a bunch of people who have all those things in common and it's a pretty nice place to spend your days.

No reservations... I was always passionate about social media and really wanted to work in the industry. I applied to several different agencies, but after seeing co-founder Gary Vaynerchuk's keynote — filled with his explosive (and at times crass) personality — I was inspired and determined to work for his company. I had no reservations about joining a small company. In fact, that's what I was looking for.

Mission to Mars... Since 2011, the company has grown from 30-something employees to over 200. When I started as a community manager, Vayner had one office floor in NYC. It grew to two floors, then an office in San Francisco, a satellite in Vegas and now it's expanding to L.A. and globally to Singapore. I see the company growing wherever Gary thinks it should be. I wouldn't be surprised if Vayner is the first agency on Mars or the only one to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Great ideas come from anyone... The best thing about VaynerMedia is the culture and how easily your voice can make a difference. Vayner believes that a great idea can come from anywhere. So it didn't matter if you were a fresh community manager or a seasoned group director; if you brought the idea and the passion, you could make it happen.

Finding room to grow… Prior to Frank & Oak, I was working for a company that specialized in recruiting pilots for private and charter jets. My role was very structured, and there was little flexibility or room to grow. Frank & Oak let me hone in on my skills in a role that also had opportunity for growth. I was originally hired as a shipping supervisor, which meant managing and motivating a team of ten to make sure orders were properly packed and shipped. (I was quickly nicknamed ‘Coach' for my many pep talks.) I'm now the operations manager, overseeing a team of more than 45. My department touches on nearly every part of the company, so I'm in constant communication with the design, sourcing and customer service departments, as well as third-party suppliers and overseas manufacturers to ensure that everything runs smoothly on a day-to-day basis. I'm in the process of implementing a 'Lean Kaizen' program here, which means that we're always looking for ways to reduce waste, boost efficiency and continually improve through best practices.

Becoming bigger and better… When I started, we were a few dozen employees, and now we're at over 100 (and growing fast). We've moved our warehouse five times into bigger and bigger spaces, so it definitely feels like we've really hit our stride. As we grow, we'll continue to streamline our processes, break into new product categories and improve the customer experience. Hicham [Ratnani, a co-founder] always says, "It's important to never be satisfied," and I couldn't agree more.

Standing ovations for all… If you walk into the Frank & Oak offices, you might be surprised by how often we clap. We give standing ovations to greet people, to congratulate each other and to celebrate company victories, big or small. I think that really speaks to our culture. We're all supportive of each other, we spend time together outside of work, and it's easy to find commonalities with everyone here. Frank & Oak is full of challenges, which means constant opportunities to learn and grow. An African Proverb comes to mind: “Smooth seas do not make for skillful sailors.” So I say, "Bring on the waves!"

Focusing on just one brand… After gaining some exposure to startups in college, I knew that I wanted to work for a great, growing company where I could make an impact. Prior to working at Pardot, I was a social media intern at communications 21, a small marketing agency. Working at the agency, I learned that my passion for marketing was real, but I wanted to focus all of my time and energy on one product, one brand. Not only did Pardot offer this opportunity, but it also provided the ability to market marketing software to other marketers using the marketing software. What's not exciting about that?

Maturing with the company… As the second marketing hire, I came on board as an entry-level generalist to help with everything from writing blog posts to qualifying sales leads. We were scrappy and trying to accomplish as much as two marketers possibly could. Over time, I took on a managerial role as the demand generation manager to lead marketing operations and demand generation efforts. This position naturally came about as our department matured and contributed heavily to Pardot's bottom line.

More passionate now than ever... Since I started in 2011, Pardot has been acquired twice. ExactTarget acquired us in 2012 and then Salesforce acquired ExactTarget in 2013. Even with those major changes, Pardot has maintained its great culture, and it still feels we work for a startup. Believe it or not the biggest difference from my first day to today is that everyone is even more passionate and driven than before.

Nothing beats the startup culture... The culture has always been incredible at Pardot. It's no surprise that our co-founders believed that a great corporate culture can provide advantages because it's so deeply rooted in everything we do. While we have many of the cool startup perks (scooters, beer, ping-pong, etc.), the culture is really about the people and how we interact. Pardot provides an environment where everyone wants to spend time with their co-workers, whether it's in or out of the office.

A technical steward... Chartbeat was my first taste of a company building something that actually had to make revenue, and the company was also at a pivotal point when I joined — we were trying to figure out how to become a mature SaaS (software as a service) company. When I transitioned from senior engineer to the CTO spot, my responsibilities shifted away from implementing products to long-term system architecture, responsibility for continuously educating employees and being the public face of our technical side. Our CEO likes to say that I'm the steward of Chartbeat's technical future, and that I should be looking a year-and-a-half out and getting us ready to tackle those challenges.

Understanding the mission... We handle an enormous amount of traffic (we regularly exceed 200,000 requests per second), and we take in a fair share of data. If I do my job right, we'll be evolving our systems to basically be a giant research tool. People should be able to access data easily and experiment with reckless abandon! Chartbeat is known as a pretty interface, but I think few people know about the deeper mission. The thing we measure — engaged time — is the best proxy we have to quantify the quality of content. For the first time, we have systems in place that can align quality to advertising revenue, and thus the financial health of content creators.

Advice for future startup employees... If I had a piece of advice for anybody thinking about going to a startup, it's this: Please, please, please go to a company that has a mission with lasting impact. The world does not need another way to trade subtitled pictures of cats.

Reimagining our education model... I am a firm believer that public education in our country is in desperate need of smart, strategic innovation and, to be blunt, change. When I was first introduced to New Classrooms, I was impressed by how the team was thinking big and didn't shirk away from completely reimagining how students in our country could best learn. Our co-founders, Joel Rose and Chris Rush, were plunging in head-on to build a new model of K-12 education — one that is bringing truly personalized learning to the students who need it most and critical support to leverage teachers' time and experience. I knew immediately that I wanted to be part of this solution in whatever capacity I could best help. The organization combined my love of education with my belief in innovative solutions to social issues. All it took was one phone call, and I knew this was where I needed to work.

It's passion, not size, that matters... Given that I was invested in the idea of New Classrooms from the start, the size of the organization didn't matter as much to me. What mattered was that it was a group of individuals who were completely committed to developing a tangible, innovative program to help all students learn. Sure it was small, but I also believed (and still do) in all of my co-workers, in their commitment to student learning and in the organization we are building. We've now been running for two years as New Classrooms, and not only has our team doubled in size, but so has the number of schools we work with and the number of students we serve. Given this growth, we've had to implement a number of new systems and initiatives to manage all the moving parts. Even simple things like the process for reserving conference rooms has had to change drastically.

A new kind of nerdy... New Classrooms is like that nerdy but incredibly cool guy in your high school class. He's fun, interesting, and challenges you to want to do better in school. And, at the end of the day, you want to stick around because you know that he is going to be incredibly successful when he grows up. Since branching off to form an independent non-profit organization, we've seen rapid change and growth. We've been lucky enough to have incredibly generous and supportive philanthropic partners in this work, whose belief in our model has helped us to iterate quickly and grow responsibly.

Today, New Classrooms has 65 employees.

Were you one of the #First100? Tell us about your experience in the comments.

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